eBay Uses ePN To Mass Execute Affiliates - Corporate Greed Kills

If you've considered Affiliate Marketing for money, good for you. If you're considering joining eBay's Affiliate Program - Don't.

If you're burdened with credit card debt and looking for a way to repair your credit, you won't find it with ePN. Hoping to have a little extra spending money after filling the car with fuel? Don't join ePN. In fact, don't spend your money buying anything on eBay. Hell, you're better off finding a free auction site, like the one provided in Northeast PA and the Pocono mountains, as reported in the newspaper serving the area. With the antics eBay is pulling, more such sites by disgruntled affiliates is sure to follow, for many are adept developers, as well as affiliates.

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In one of the bloodiest mass executions to take place digitally, in the cyber world of affiliate marketing, ePN, eBay's new in-house affiliate program, has eliminated hundreds (possibly thousands) of affiliates in one single swoop of the axe.

Why would ePN (eBay) kill off their young? Simple corporate greed. Their stock is tanking, their business model has lost focus since aquiring new management, and they believe this influx of cash (not having to share with affiliates) will give them new life. They believe that since they are now such a household name they don't need affiliates and worse, they are trying to become something they can never be - an Amazon.com type site. It's getting to the point that with a free adsense book, Adsense sites can do better.

They are shooting themselves in the foot. Among their victims is a motorcycle site that ranked #2 in Google. Having sent ebay over 600,000 visitors in 1 year and earning, both the site and eBay, six figures each. eBay (ePN) doesn't have many body parts remaining to shoot, already having made blunders that resulted in a failing corporation. Soon they will only have their head to put a bullet into.

On August 20th, 2008, an undisclosed number of affiliates were sent the following template letter:

"Dear (Affiliate),

During a recent review of eBay Partner Network publisher accounts and site metrics data for clicks your account drives to eBay.com, we determined that the traffic generated from your account is significantly less engaged with the eBay site as compared to the standards set by our other affiliates. While we appreciate your efforts to drive traffic to our Advertiser sites, we do not think that it is mutually beneficial to further our business relationship at this time. As a result, we will be expiring your eBay Partner Network account in 7 days and we request that you remove all of your eBay Partner Network affiliate links by that time. Payment will take place as per the Network Agreement for any traffic driven to eBay Advertiser sites prior to the expiration date of August 27, 2008.

One of our account managers will contact you if a more appropriate business opportunity arises to work together again in the future.

Regards,

The eBay Partner Network"

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This occurred approximately 2 weeks after a similar letter was sent to affiliates dropping them then, but was soon retracted, as a "gllitch" for those that asked for a review.

When looking at the terminology used, it is obviously written by an attorney. It is so non-specific, that it is not understandable in order to correct any problem that might have existed for the affiliate.

"Less engaged?" What the hell does that mean? The affiliates job is to steer a visitor toward the site. It's the sites (eBay) responsibility to "engage" them.

"Metrix data?" They don't even say what data they used to make a determination, claiming "black hatters" will use the knowledge to their advantage. Excuse me while I put on a pair of waders.

"Standards set by other affiliates?" There is nothing in the agreement regarding standards, nor have any standards been published - and what are those standards, that were set by other affiliates? They were never shown.

In this latest en masse removal of their bread and butter, it seems there will be no reversal, as this template letter is returned to those who request a review:

"Dear (Affiliate),

Thank you for your message.

Our goal in affiliate marketing is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. We have been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. In addition to looking at earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources.

As a result, we have asked a small subset of affiliates to stop sending traffic to eBay. We understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of you who have been working with us over the years. For that, we sincerely apologize, but these decisions are made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program. We also want to clarify that you are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. You will get paid for all the valid traffic sent to date, and for the next 7 days.

At this time, we unfortunately cannot reconsider our decision on your account. We will contact you again if we see an opportunity to work together again in the future.

eBay.com Affiliate Team"

For an entire day the ePN Forum continued to accumulate with angry ex-members looking for a Rep to give some clue, as to "Why?" they were booted out of the affiliate program. Some of them bringing eBay 5 and 6 figures per year in income.

Their response came on the evening of August 21st:

steveh@ebay.com Aug-21-08 16:50 PDT I wanted to address all of the board posts regarding the expiration emails that were sent last night.

These actions were part of our continued effort to focus on delivering the highest quality buyer traffic to eBay via affiliate marketing. To that end, we’ve been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. I know there have been a number of requests to provide insight into all of the metrics via which we are evaluating affiliate traffic, but unfortunately there’s an active black hat community that is pretty effective at exploiting these insights so we can’t go into details on them. However, what I can say is that in addition to earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources.

Our responsibility in the affiliate marketing channel is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. To that end, we need to focus on partners who have had the most success in engaging users who become some of our best buyers on eBay. I understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of our affiliates who have been working with us over the years. For that, I sincerely apologize, but these decisions are made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program.

We want to be very clear. Affiliates who received these messages of expiration last night are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. For those of you who received the message, commissions are not being reversed, and you will be paid for all valid traffic you have sent to us to date, and for the next 7 days.

Sincerely,

Steve

It is now the general mindset of affiliates, even those who weren't axed, to re-invent our wheel and revamp our sites, driving retail business away from eBay to a more trustworthy publisher who appreciates the many, many millions of dollars in revenue we point to them. Why would those who weren't axed want to leave? Basically, it's pain relief by not having worries. Because we have lost faith and trust in eBay and the in-house program that has been trouble from the day the fox started watching the hen house. None of us wants to go to bed at night wondering if we are going to find a letter of dismissal in the morning, because some algorithm program made it so.

Do not join ePN! It's suicide - eventually.